Oakland A's beat Seattle Mariners on walk-off homer

OAKLAND -- Starting exactly one year earlier, on Aug. 19, 2012, Jarrod Parker began a streak that would see him go 6-1 down the stretch, helping the A's win the American League West.

On Aug. 19, 2013, Parker threw the first complete game of his career and got the win when Brandon Moss delivered a walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the ninth for a 2-1 victory over Seattle.

"To win like that is awesome," Parker said, "and to claw through that game and win it is great."

The difference between this year and last -- he threw eight shutout innings against the Indians on the same date a year ago -- is that Parker has not waited until the stretch drive to produce. His win Monday is his seventh in succession, and he is unbeaten in his last 15 starts.

With Bartolo Colon on the disabled list, Parker has become the de facto ace of the Oakland rotation. Parker talks about just wanting to do his job once every five days, but he has gone almost three months without taking a loss, and in all that time he's allowed more than three runs in a start just once.

At 24, he is perhaps a little younger than most pitchers who are the leading lights in their respective rotations. But with his increasingly uncanny ability to put his changeup wherever he wants it and to get his two-seam fastball to veer through more ZIP codes than a FedEx truck, the right-hander is grinding up hitters' bats at a ferocious rate.

Catcher Stephen Vogt said Parker threw perhaps more changeups than at any time since Vogt has been around.

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"This was the best changeup I've ever seen him have," Vogt said. "And his two-seamer is running (through the strike zone) so much that it sort of acts like a changeup."

The A's, still in the midst of troubled offensive production, need step-up performances like the one Parker turned in more nights than manager Bob Melvin would care to count. At the same time, this night was special.

The bullpen covered 4﻿1/3 innings Sunday, 3﻿1/3 innings Saturday and four innings Friday against Cleveland. That meant Melvin had precious few fresh arms with which to challenge the Mariners out of the bullpen. And Melvin had a special appreciation for the economy of pitches Parker displayed.

Melvin didn't want to use any of his big three -- Grant Balfour, Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle -- if he could avoid it, but in the ninth inning with the game tied and a runner on, Doolittle was warming up nonetheless.

Parker struck out Justin Smoak with his 100th pitch to end the ninth. Doolittle sat down.

And Moss stood up. Batting with one out against hard-throwing Carter Capps, the first baseman rode a bullet out to dead center field to win it, his A's teammates racing to home plate to greet him after his second walk-off homer this season and the seventh walk-off win for Oakland in 2013.

The result was Moss' 19th homer on a night when the ball wasn't going out of the park for anyone.

Coco Crisp returned to the A's starting lineup, going 0 for 4. Because Crisp's wrist injury still inhibits him batting right-handed, he probably will get Wednesday off against lefty Joe Saunders, then start the series finale Wednesday.

There was no pie in Moss' face after his walk-off homer, but not because the first baseman was undeserving. When television opted to talk to Parker after the game, Reddick, the man who handles the pies the last two seasons, backed off. "It's not my job to pie the pitchers," Reddick explained with a smile.

Parker's streak of 15 starts without a loss is the longest for an Oakland pitcher since Dan Haren had a 16-game streak in 2007.

Lefty Brett Anderson will get a start Thursday for Stockton in the California League because the A's didn't relish the thought of Anderson, trying to come back from a right ankle sprain and stress fracture of the right foot, pitching in a hitter-friendly park at altitude. That is what would have happened if Anderson had pitched for Triple-A Sacramento, which is playing that night in Colorado Springs.

Alberto Callaspo was picked up for the stretch drive to be mainly a utility man, but Monday was his sixth consecutive start, and Melvin has had him in the starting lineup nine times in the last 10 games. He's appeared in every game the A's have played since he was acquired from the Angels.